In a forest clearing strewn with jagged rocks, the rogue cultivators who had narrowly escaped death sprawled on the ground, panting hard, their faces mingling with relief at having survived. Some hurried to tend their wounds, others checked their dwindling stocks of magic treasures and pills, while still more gazed with complicated expressions at the crimson figure ahead.
Yun Qing sat on a greenstone, his slender fingers gently stroking the warm Little Golden Fur in his arms.
While he had fought for his life, Little Radiant Chick had slept soundly. Watching the little fellow occasionally smack his beak in his dreams and let out a faint "chirrup," Yun Qing shook his head with a laugh, unable to help feeling a little envious. If "retirement" existed in the cultivation world, he would certainly live like this once he retired.
He seemed absorbed in playing with the chick, but his double pupils had already taken in all forty or fifty rogue cultivators before him and their varied expressions. After he had led Wang Hu and the others out of the encirclement, these people had escaped one after another through the opening he had torn and gathered around him.
Yun Qing swept his double pupils over the ghostly mist spreading beneath the cliff, saying nothing.
Silence, laden with invisible pressure, spread across the clifftop.
The rogue cultivators exchanged glances. Finally, their eyes all settled on Wang Hu. This fierce man, who bore a crimson Heaven List mark on his forehead yet possessed something of an outlaw's loyalty, was now the one most capable of making decisions among this motley rabble.
Wang Hu wiped the blood and dust from his face, gritted his teeth, and dragged his exhausted body to within thirty feet of Yun Qing before cupping his fists.
"Brother Qing Yun, words